It was the part on Verwoerd’s relationship with Irish celebrity Gerry Ryan and his tragic death that was of specific interest to Irish readers but in South Africa the book also intrigues due to Verwoerd’s previous marriage to apartheid prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd’s grandson.

Verwoerd spoke to Sue Segar of The Witness about her eventful life:

THERE are not many authors who can claim to have outsold Fifty Shades of Grey in a week, but former ANC MP, and South African ambassador to Ireland, Melanie Verwoerd, did precisely that.

“I joke with my friends. I say: ‘Isn’t that a huge step for womankind?’,” Verwoerd quipped in an interview to discuss her book, The Verwoerd who Toyi-Toyied.

Verwoerd, who now lives in Dublin with her two children, was in South Africa to promote the book.